Protect Reproductive Health and Family Planning in Kings County

In Texas and Alabama, anti-choice groups are trying to shut down reproductive health clinics including sexual health and family planning services. Now it is happening in Kings County California.

Kings County Board of Supervisors voted on August 20 to close down the Kings County reproductive health clinic in Hanford this December 31. The reason they give is budget cuts ... but they just don't seem to have enough of a commitment to women's health. The vote was 4-1 with the lone Democrat, Richard Valle, voting No.

Hanford is close to Visalia (Tulare County, 20 minutes away). The Kern-Kaweah Mineral King Group of the Sierra Club covers all of Kings and Tulare counties.

SIGN THE PETITION

If we do not take action, the Hanford Board of Supervisors will vote to close the Reproductive Health Clinic in January 2014. The Reproductive Health Clinic is the only specialty Women's Clinic in Kings County, CA; being the “only one” of anything is a very big deal, but the distinction is especially important here. Kings County is a rural community with a high undocumented population and the third highest teen pregnancy rate in the state of California, which means that there groups of people that are either unable to go to other clinics, or are simply too uncomfortable to do so. Just because a woman isn’t officially a citizen of the US, or just because a sixteen-year-old made a split second mistake, doesn’t mean they should be denied health care, and allowing the RHC to close would be unfair to all of the people who need it.